The Sweeney (Series) - TV Tropes The Sweeney You need to login to do this. Get Known if you don't have an account Share "We're the Sweeney, son, and we haven't had any dinner. You've kept us waiting, so unless you want a kicking, you tell us where those photographs are!" — DI Jack Regan A classic British Cop Show from the 1970s featuring Cowboy Cop Inspector Jack Regan (John Thaw) and his sidekick Sergeant George Carter (Dennis Waterman) of the Metropolitan Police Flying Squad (Rhyming slang: " Sweeney Todd " = "Flying Squad", hence the title), an elite detective unit able to be stationed at any location where an armed robbery is likely. The characters were rough, hard-drinking and, by modern standards, highly sexist. Regan, while over forty, greying and divorced, was successful with women as part of his macho image (although his sex life became a plot point sometimes). Carter was married and a bit more stable and reliable than his "Guv'nor".

In fact, Regan's "Guv'nor", Superintendent Haskins, felt Carter should be reassigned because Regan was a bad influence on him. British television cop shows had been undergoing a steady evolution from the light-hearted Dixon of Dock Green to the relatively gritty Z Cars . The Sweeney took this to the next level, with an unprecedented level of violence, cynicism, and bad language (albeit that it was still PG-rated; "bastard" was as bad as it got)note thery were allowed one "fucking", though. It was used to effect .. There was at least one car chase, fist fight or gunfight per episode. Unlike most British policemen, Regan and Carter were often armed, but the squad frequently took down criminal gangs in brutal hand-to-hand battles fought with pick-axe handles, iron bars , fists and boots. Unlike the almost-contemporary Starsky & Hutch the violent action did not have a James Bond -movie feel to it, being instead down-and-dirty, and sometimes quite shocking. Gunfire was seldom non-lethal and people who got hurt stayed hurt. If a car crashed and burned , the people inside didn't climb out as in The A-Team , either!

Detective work was mainly a matter of asking informants, many of whom lived in fear, or of following people, or simply "knowing the manor" so well that the heroes could just guess who was the most likely suspect. Not much Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot stuff happened, but it was often quite close to real police work. Blatantly parodied in The Invisibles , where Jack and George of Division X are Carter and Regan to the life. Explained by saying that the invisibles created their cover identities from old '70s cop shows. Their boss Mr Crowley is a shout out to George Cowley of The Professionals , another British police drama of the time. (Their fellow agent Mister Six, meanwhile, is a shout out to Jason King of Department S .) Gene Hunt of Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes is a fairly obvious Shout-Out to Jack Regan and his ilk. (One is tempted to call him an Affectionate Parody , but he'd call one a poof for saying so.

He'd call one a poof for saying "one" instead of "him" anyway.) Gerry Standing, Dennis Waterman's character in New Tricks , is another Affectionate Parody of what the characters from The Sweeney (George in particular) might look like thirty-odd years down the track. The show was recorded entirely with film, and the production had a heavy reliance on location shooting, both of which were very unusual features at the time. Although it was extremely popular, a combination of high production costs and creator burnout meant that it only lasted for four series. Nonetheless it was very influential, directly inspiring ITV's successful The Professionals and the BBC's relatively unpopular Target . Two spin-off movies were produced during the show's run: Sweeney! in 1977 and Sweeney 2 in 1978. A movie adaptation of the show was released in 2012. The TV series provides examples of: Armed Blag : A common source of plots (unsurprisingly, since armed robberies were what the Flying Squad specialised in in real life).

Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking : The pilot movie Regan ended with Regan beating a confession out of a suspect for the murder of an undercover police man....and then threatening to do him for not paying his car tax. ‎The Sweeney (2012) directed by Nick Love • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd 7 Back in the 1970s, The Sweeney, was a trailblazing TV police drama about a no nonsense Flying Squad, led by DI Jack Regan, and affectionately known as the sweeney (obviously). A tough, chauvinistic bastard, Regan was a great character but very much a product of the times he lived in so re-imagining him for the modern world was always likely to be problematic, particularly when played without a hint of irony. This new Regan, filled out by the sizeable bulk of a grizzly Ray Winstone, is more laughable than intimidating as he spits out Cockney insults whilst punching anybody he doesn’t like the look of. Winstone is certainly a force on screen, and when he isn’t chewing the scenery he… 6 British crime films nowadays seem to fall into two distinct categories.

You have the straight-to-DVD rubbish that features the odd past-it soap opera star, or with a slightly bigger budget, a film that stars Ray Winstone. Most are London set football hooligan films or wannabe Guy Ritchie copies of the underbelly of London's gangland. There doesn't seem to be anything in between. Director Nick Love has made a career out of just these sort of films and although this has the odd bit of entertaining violence, it's not really any different to what he's made before. The Sweeney was a seventies television series that focused on the Flying Squad. It was gritty and raw, and starred two very convincing actors… 2 Not sure where to start....umm..... soundtrack, why not. Booming, honking Inception style, and a quick google reveals that the soundtrack is by a Hans Zimmer flunkie who did 'additional music' on Batman, Transformers, Inception. It sounds like a cheap knock off of those, because well....it is. Which is fine, when graced with a breathtaking chase in a collapsing city. Not so much in a pool hall in Dalston. Next, the story.

I have no idea what this was about, some Serbians who may or may not have done something to somebody for some reason and then a bank and someone gets shot and then i dont fucking know....... The cast. The bloke from Homeland (awful), some bloke from BBC drama,… 4 Ah hell. This is an extremely difficult film to review for someone who considers himself a fan of the original series. First off the bat, Ray Winstone is simply not Jack Regan and it grinds my gears to hear idiots say he's the natural choice for the role. For one the Paddy Power whore is a good 20 years too old for the part. John Thaw may have looked like he'd had an incredibly tough gruff life but we need to remember he was only in his mid to late 30s when he played the lead role in The Sweeney. Winstone, in his mid 50s, is simply wrong. He's too old.

And too fat (they actually make jokes about his… The Sweeney Todd (Flying Squad) 'You're nicked, you fackin' slag!' Is an armed response special unit dealing with hard-core armed robbers and other criminal nut-jobs the average bobby on the beat would have nightmares coming up against. Based on the 1970s TV series, which I watched goggle eyed as a kid, starring John Thaw as Hard case, Jack Reagan and his sidekick, George Carter (Dennis waterman) They blasted about the screen in car chases, beat the shit out of perps with fists, pickaxe handles and anything they could pick up, dust bins, chairs etc. Well this classic show has been hit with the reboot button. So what's it like? Funny enough I just couldn't connect with it at all.

Ray… Garfield Morgan: Actor best known for playing Jack Regan's boss in 'The Sweeney' | The Independent Garfield Morgan: Actor best known for playing Jack Regan's boss in 'The Sweeney' Wednesday 30 December 2009 00:00 BST Click to follow The Independent Online The balding head and impassive manner that Garfield Morgan brought to many of his television roles was most prominent in The Sweeney, in which he played Chief Inspector Frank Haskins, the nervy and long-suffering boss of John Thaw and Dennis Waterman's no-holds-barred Flying Squad detectives, Regan and Carter. Haskins' disapproval of their unorthodox methods, in a programme notable for its violent action and strong language, brought him into frequent arguments with Regan. The Sweeney (1975-78) trail-blazed the next generation of police series after Z-Cars and Softly Softly, which showed that those who dispensed law and order could themselves be flawed. Morgan's own character was just as flawed as those for whom he took responsibility.

Haskins constantly had marriage problems, gulped down glasses of milk to ease the pain from his ulcer and was not immune to taking wrong decisions at work. Once, when a bank manager and female customer were taken hostage by robbers, he and Regan disagreed about whether to use police marksmen to kill the criminals or sweat it out. Haskins' decision to choose the latter led to disaster, with the manager dead and the woman hideously disfigured. As a character actor and private man who never sought fame, Morgan brought the same dispassionate manner to sitcom roles, including that of the confectionery firm owner A. C. Strain employing the Northerner grappling with moving south (Rodney Bewes) in Dear Mother... Love Albert (1969-71) and its sequel, Albert (1972). Born in Birmingham in 1931, Morgan began his working life as an apprentice dental mechanic but decided to follow his love of acting by training at a Birmingham drama school. His first job was with the touring Arena Theatre Company, based in Sutton Coldfield.

He was soon acting and directing for the stage, becoming director of productions at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury (1957-58), and Library Theatre, Manchester (1959-60). Later, he was associate director at the Northcott Theatre, Exeter (1976-78), and the Nottingham Playhouse (1978-80). By then, Morgan was a prolific actor on television. He had already played villains in Z-Cars, as well as policemen and vicars on screen, by the time he was cast as Detective Chief Inspector Gwyn Lewis in the first series of Softly Softly (1966), the Z-Cars spin-off. He followed it with a string of character roles in popular series such as The Avengers (1967-69), The Baron (1967), The Saint (1967) and Man in a Suitcase (1967), before becoming a regular as Webster in the gangland drama Spindoe (1968) and Tao Gan in Judge Dee (1969), which adapted ancient Chinese detective stories.

The Sweeney followed a 1974 "Armchair Cinema" pilot, Regan, which gave a clue of what was to come, with John Thaw's loud, "shoot now, ask questions later" detective inspector slamming down the phone on his "guv'nor" more than once. Many of Morgan's subsequent regular roles were in sitcoms. He played Desmond, porter of the flats where the university-educated layabout played by Hywel Bennett lived in the later series of Shelley (1982-84), Thora Hird's fellow Salvation Army officer Brigadier Langton in the second run of Hallelujah! (1984), Tim Brooke-Taylor's boss Gerald in You Must Be the Husband (1987-88), the golf club captain George Brady in the writer Johnny Speight's The Nineteenth Hole (1989) and the Labour Party whip Norman in No Job for a Lady (1990-92, starring Penelope Keith as a female MP).

There was an element of an in-joke when the actor was reunited with Dennis Waterman in four episodes of the comedy-drama Minder (1985-9), in which he played Superintendent Mason alongside George Cole as the second-hand car salesman Arthur Daley and Waterman as the conman's bodyguard, Terry McCann. Morgan also took one-off parts in Lovejoy (1992), Heartbeat (2003), Holby City (2004) and The Bill (2005). His film appearances were only occasional, and included The Odessa File (1974, playing an Israeli general), the comedy The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain (1995) and the zombie apocalypse picture 28 Weeks Later (2007), but he continued to act on stage throughout his years on television. He also provided the narration for four Rick Wakeman albums, including The Seven Wonders of the World (1995), and appeared with the musician in live performances. A keen horse rider, Morgan competed in eventing and show jumping. He was secretary of the Stage Golfing Society from 2005 until his death.

Anthony Hayward Garfield Morgan, actor and director: born Birmingham 19 April 1931; married Dilys Laye (marriage dissolved); died London 5 December 2009. More about: The Sweeney (TV Series 1975–1978) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error British police TV series which revolutionized the genre on UK television in the mid-1970s starring John Thaw as a hard-edged detective in the Flying Squad of London's Metropolitan Police. Creator: Robert Hargreaves, who has an apparently distinguished military background, joins Regan's team. However, at a raid on a caravan site to capture a gang of ex-soldiers who have carried out a violent ... 8.6 After Regan gets a tip about an upcoming robbery from a trusted informant, the gang kidnaps his daughter to blackmail him into inaction.

8.4 Regan is staking out vicious robber Vic Tolman and his girl-friend Lyn Hurst, who have stolen the wages from the firm where Lyn worked. A surveillance is in progress on the flat belonging to Lyn's ... 8.4 a list of 42 titles created 25 Jan 2012 a list of 45 titles created 21 Sep 2012 a list of 21 titles created 11 Aug 2013 a list of 43 titles created 07 Sep 2014 a list of 21 titles created 30 Nov 2014 Search for " The Sweeney " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Title: The Sweeney (1975–1978) 8.1/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Arthur Daley, a small-time conman, hires former boxer Terry McCann to be his 'minder', so Terry can protect him (Arthur) from other, small-time, crooks. While Terry is trying his hardest to...

See full summary » Stars: George Cole, Glynn Edwards, Dennis Waterman Cinematic spin-off from the popular TV series. Hard-bitten Flying Squad officer Jack Regan gets embroiled in a deadly political plot when an old friend asks him to investigate the death of ... See full summary » Director: David Wickes This series chronicled the lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their controller, George Cowley. The mandate of CI5 was to fight terrorism ... See full summary » Stars: Gordon Jackson, Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins Second cinematic spin-off from the popular 70's police series. Regan & Carter head a Flying Squad investigation into a series of bank raids by a team of well-armed villains who are flying in from the continent. Director: Tom Clegg Finally the house that Robin, Chris and Jo share a flat in is demolished an two spin offs are made - Robin's Nest and George & Minded (Mr & Mrs Roper). Stars: Richard O'Sullivan, Paula Wilcox, Sally Thomsett Ken Boon and Harry Crawford are two middle-aged ex-firemen who start out in business together, initially in Birmingham and later in Nottingham.

During the seven series (1986-1992), Ken ... See full summary » Stars: Michael Elphick, David Daker, Neil Morrissey Wolfie Smith is an unemployed dreamer from Tooting London, a self proclaimed Urban Guerilla who aspires to be like his hero Che Guevara. Leading a small group called the Tooting Popular ... See full summary » Stars: Robert Lindsay, Mike Grady, Hilda Braid A working-class Cockney bigot with a biased and expirienced opinion of everything shares them bluntly and almost carelessly. Stars: Warren Mitchell, Anthony Booth, Una Stubbs Terry and Bob from The Likely Lads (1964) continue their life after Terry arrives home from serving in the Army to discover that Bob is about to marry his girlfriend Thelma. Can Thelma lead... See full summary » Stars: James Bolam, Rodney Bewes, Brigit Forsyth Popular sitcom set in a seedy bedsit lorded over by the mean, vain, boastful, cowardly landlord Rigsby. In each episode, his conceits are debunked by his long suffering tenants.

Stars: Leonard Rossiter, Don Warrington, Frances de la Tour George and Mildred Roper are forced to leave their home in South Kensington (as the landlords in Man About the House (1973)) when they receive a compulsory purchase order from the council. ... See full summary » Stars: Yootha Joyce, Brian Murphy, Norman Eshley Albert Steptoe and his son Harold are junk dealers, complete with horse and cart to tour the neighbourhood. They also live amicably together at the junk yard. But Harold, who likes the ... See full summary » Director: Cliff Owen Edit Storyline British police series which revolutionised the genre on UK television in the mid 1970s. Jack Regan (see also 'Regan' (1974)) played by John Thaw is a hard edged detective in the Flying Squad of London's Metropolitan Police (called 'the Sweeney' from the Cockney rhyming slang 'Sweeney Todd' = 'Flying Squad'). He pursues villains by methods which are underhand, often illegal themselves, frequently violent and more often than not successful.

The series was made on film a preserves a gritty realism inherited from such films as 'Get Carter' (1971) Written by D.Giddings <darren.giddings@newcastle.ac.uk> 2 January 1975 (UK) See more » Also Known As: Did You Know? Trivia The popularity of the series on ITV prompted the BBC to make its first action series on film, Target (1977). See more » Connections Put Your Trousers On - You're Nicked 7 January 2003 | by tgtround (England) – See all my reviews Ian and Troy Kennedy-Martin were the brothers who revolutionised crime drama on British TV in the 1970s. While Troy was a far more political animal, Ian concentrated on commercial TV. However, that doesn't make The Sweeney any less authentic. In fact, many ex-Flying Squad officers have commented on its authenticity, helped by the fact that the producers used to pay real policeman in used fivers as 'technical advisors'. The Sweeney represents Scotland Yard's first proper attempt to stem the rise of violent robberies following the oil crisis and economic slump of the 1970s.

It represents the time before the Police And Criminal Evidence Acts changed the face of policing for ever in Britain - a far more free-wheeling, corruption laden time. Policing is shown as hard, tedious work where moral dilemmas must be confronted all the time and there are no sudden leaps in detection, just stress and danger. Particularly impressive in the Sweeney are the number of times that firearms are used - this was really true in the Flying Squad - even back in the good old days... 12 of 13 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Yes BFI Screenonline: Sweeney, The (1975-78) Sweeney, The (1975-78) Euston Films/Thames Television for ITV, 2/1/1975 - 28/12/1978 52 x 60 min episode in 4 series, colour Troy Kennedy Martin Cast: John Thaw (DI Jack Regan); Dennis Waterman (DS George Carter); Garfield Morgan (DCI Haskins); Morris Perry (Chief Superintendent Maynon); John Alkin (DS Daniels); Martin Read (Thorpe) (ITV, 1975-78) completely overhauled TV police drama. The slightly cosy world of Z Cars (BBC, 1962-78), once held up as an exemplar of TV realism , and the moribund musings of Sergeant Dixon - "Evenin' all" - ( Dixon of Dock Green , BBC, 1955-76) suddenly looked like they belonged to a different age.

The fictional Dock Green and Newtown beats and their generally harmless petty criminals were replaced by the real streets of West London and 'villains' - hard men with shooters pitched against even harder coppers. The series started life as a single drama, Regan (ITV, tx, 4/6/74), in the Armchair Theatre slot. The play was essentially about a Flying Squad investigation into a savage gangland killing, but the real star was the equally brutal central character, Detective Inspector Jack Regan, played by John Thaw . Regan was unlike any previous small screen police officer - his temper might have matched Z Cars' firebrand, Detective Inspector Barlow ( Stratford Johns ), but even at his most bellicose Newtown's hard man never resorted to Regan's level of undiluted violence. Regan attracted an audience of over 7 million, enough to trigger a series based around the play's central character. The Sweeney (derived from the cockney rhyming slang - 'Sweeney Todd/Flying Squad') quickly followed, and at its peak drew 19 million viewers.

Regan's congenial sidekick, Detective Sgt George Carter, played by Dennis Waterman , shared many of his guvnor's basic traits but despite their willingness to hit first and ask questions later the pair were portrayed as flawed but basically honest police officers, doing a dirty job against the odds, an image greatly helped by excellent performances from the two leads. Dialogue was as important to The Sweeney as action and many of Regan's best lines, often delivered through gritted teeth, have become famous. "Get your trousers on, you're nicked" and "Shut it!" have both passed into popular usage, while quotes such as "We're the Sweeney, son, and we've haven't had any dinner yet, so unless you want a kickin'..." and "I am utterly and abjectly pissed off" demonstrate how the show blended humour into the action. The Sweeney was more than just a hugely successful TV series - it also acted as a catalyst for change across the entire police genre . With the arrival of Regan and Carter the innocent world of Dixon was no longer believable.

Anthony Clark Amazon.com: The Sweeney - The Complete First Series: John Thaw, Dennis Waterman, Garfield Morgan, Prunella Gee, Bernadette Milnes, Michael McStay, Timothy Carlton, Mike Savage, James Marcus, Thali Kouri, Los Gitanos, Tony Allen, David Wickes, Douglas Camfield, Ted Childs, Terry Green, Tom Clegg, Viktors Ritelis, William Brayne, Allan Prior: Movies & TV By Michael Taylor on February 7, 2014 Format: DVD|Verified Purchase This set takes me back. I used to watch the series religiously when it originally ran in the seventies. The haircuts and bell-bottoms look a bit dated, but the dialog between Regan and Carter still crackles. The series was iconoclastic, because prior to that all British bobby shows featured very buttoned down and righteous officers of the law. There was never a suggestion that a copper would look the other way in exchange for a bung, or that sometimes suspects "fell down the station steps" to elicit a confession.

The only problem if you're American is you'll probably need a glossary for all the Cockney rhyming slang By David G. Lamplugh on September 5, 2009 Format: DVD|Verified Purchase This season one box set is a good start if you are unfamiliar with The Sweeney, the seminal british police procedural of the seventies. I would put this series high on a list of all time greatest cop shows, irregardless of country of origin. Though notably lacking the pilot episode "Regan", The set has more than a few classic episodes, including "Ringer" and the hilarious "Thin Ice". The Sweeney has a reputation of being quite violent, but most modern viewers have nothing to worry about on this score (though i sense that people that have an even mild interest . The violence and hard charging police tactics are mild by today's television standards. There is a seventies pre-delection for action, punch-ups and car chases. Fans of Starsky and Hutch and Miami Vice will not be disappointed in their choice of The Sweeney, Season One for this very reason.

That said, there is a decidedly more realistic and cerebral under current at play in the Sweeney, mostly due to the excellent characterizations provide by John Thaw and Dennis Waterman. The character of Regan provides an interesting counterpoint to John Thaw's later, more famous work as Inspector Morse, the similarities being, if anything, more interesting than the differences. Thaw frequently played an alcoholic with a fanatical sense of duty and workaholic tendencies. Apparently, Thaw had these qualities in real life, so it was a fairly easy sell to produce on screen. Necessarily, the later character of Morse is a far less physical being, relying on almost entirely on brains with the brawn and pint purchasing ability provide by sergeant Lewis. Regan, befitting a much younger man, a man raised in the tough mancunian north, kicks down his own doors, and seems to relish putting a hand on the bad guys. Besides that, the differences are mainly structural and procedural. Regan is the head of the flying squad, similar to a major crimes unit in the U.S. The flying squad deals mostly with grand theft, forgery, and racketeering.

Morse is, of course, murder police through and through, and the Oxford locale of the Inspector Morse series begs for an more nuanced approach to policing. All for now, enjoy season one on DVD, and hope that the PAL By P. J. Belland on August 19, 2010 Format: DVD|Verified Purchase My wife and I loved John Thaw in the "Morse" series and "Cavanaugh QC". We were saddened by Mr. Thaws death and wish to extend our sympathies to his family and all who enjoyed his work as much as we did. Because of our feelings for John Thaw, we decided to try "The Sweeney" even though it is a 1970's vintage English TV series. Well, to our surprise, we loved that old series also. The appeal is the outstanding writing, great directing, and excellent acting. The Sweeney is an interesting character study of the chief protagonist and the lead characters in every episode. The stories are as relevant today as they were in the 70's, and the audience can become immersed in the plot, even in the Summer 2010.

The only drawback is revisiting 1970's technologies, which can sometimes give the viewer a little chuckle. We highly recommend this series. By Humble Mozart-Devotee on January 16, 2014 Format: DVD|Verified Purchase I had already viewed all of these from Inter-Library Loan in the past couple of years, so I knew what I was ordering. I am thrilled to have the entire series at my fingertips. If you are a John Thaw / Dennis Waterman fan, this series is the gold standard. I'm just six years younger than Dennis Waterman, so this series is an absolute Time Machine for me! It's 'comfort food' for the soul -- without any calories! I also have the two Sweeney feature films. Don't hesitate to buy them, if you get the chance. They are both GREAT! By T. Neff on July 2, 2007 Format: DVD|Verified Purchase If you're a Brit this TV show is as famous as Starsky & Hutch, so allow me to address the US consumer for a moment.

Remember when US TV comedy was mostly cringe inducing twaddle, but British TV comedy was genius stuff like Fawlty Towers and Good Neighbors? What you DIDN'T know was that serious British TV drama was often just as brilliant, but didn't translate as well ("too British") and had no hope of a US licensing deal to allow you to see it. And thus we have THE SWEENEY, a ground-breaking show about Britain's elite coppers The Flying Squad. (Cockney rhyming slang: Flying Squad = Sweeney Todd = The Sweeney.) Previous British police shows had been relatively genteel affairs, but THE SWEENEY exposed the raw side of street policing. Inspector Jack Regan (John Thaw of Inspector Morse fame) is a born cop and a stone predator in the crime jungle. He will bend the rules when necessary to achieve rough justice. His sidekick George Carter (Dennis Waterman) often calls his methods into question, but is always ready when the scrap is on. Rather than dissect every episode and angle, let me just say that if you cherish great acting, strong casting, inventive plotting and tasty style, THE SWEENEY will afford you many hours of pleasure.

The dialog will, at times, require a US viewer to listen attentively. Once you've watched a few episodes and gotten into the London and Manchester argot, it becomes easier. I could wish for an English subtitle track in future series however. It's been a lifesaver with Life on Mars: Series 1 [Region 2 ] where it can get a bit thick. Sweeney: 'I nearly pulled out. I didn't want to be a Batman and Robin sidekick': Plan B joins Ray Winstone in the big-screen remake | Daily Mail Online comments The classic Seventies TV show's Regan and Carter are iconic, no-nonsense cops. Here, Ray Winstone and Ben Drew (aka Plan B) reveal the ten-step plan for turning it into a big-screen hit 'We saw some very successful actors, but as soon as I saw Ben (Drew) I thought: number one, he looks like he could kick down a door, and number two, he can act,' said Ray Winstone Since the mid-Nineties there hasn’t been a summer at the cinema without a remake of a TV series. From Star Trek to Scooby-Doo, all have traded on our instinctive preference for known properties.

But few have been British. The rights to film The Professionals and The Good Life, for example, have been bought but never exercised. A show unknown in America is never likely to get the $150 million budget that it took to bring Mission Impossible 4 to the screen. So how is The Sweeney, Thames TV’s gritty police drama from 1975-78, about to get an international release? How does a cult British show, best remembered by British men in their fifties, become a film which, as of next month, will be vying for teenage dollars from Salt Lake City to Shanghai? As the British cast and crew told us, it takes cunning, resourcefulness – and the help of Top Gear and Boris Johnson. Here’s how… 'Ray persuaded me that if he was a real cop he'd want someone my age as a partner, someone who spoke the language the kids speak,' said Ben 1. FIND $5 MILLION DOLLARS Twentieth Century Fox were set to remake The Sweeney in 2007, but when the financial crisis hit it went into ‘turnaround’ – as they call it when a studio decides not to make a film.

This is usually the kiss of death. That’s when Nick Love, British director of low-budget films like The Football Factory, took up the reins. ‘The rights were owned by an Anglo-German firm called Fremantle,’ says Love. ‘When Fox decided not to do the film, Fremantle gave it to me to do on a small budget.’ Love sat down with five producers to work out how The Sweeney could be turned into a hit. ‘It was a challenge,’ says Chris Simon, one of the five. ‘It needed to look glossy and expensive. We found a crew who knew how to get value for money and were not being paid a huge amount. People were willing to help for a love of 'The Sweeney. That kept the budget low.’ How low? ‘You could certainly make a film like this for $5 million. But not easily…’ 'It needed to look glossy and expensive. We found a crew who knew how to get value for money and were not being paid a huge amount. People were willing to help for a love of The Sweeney,' said producer Chris Simon 2.

CAST A COCKNEY LEGEND The original Sweeney starred the late John Thaw as the Flying Squad’s ‘thief-taker general’, DI Jack Regan. Only one actor was ever in the frame to play Regan this time: Ray Winstone. After all, his first appearance on The Sweeney was 35 years ago. ‘It was my first ever job,’ says Winstone. ‘I was an extra on an episode called Loving Arms. 'I was a good-looking geezer back then and God, I’m ugly now. I remember I kept talking while John Thaw and Dennis Waterman were trying to do their lines. 'I didn’t know that I couldn’t join in. They said they had to pay you £30 extra if you spoke. Also, I was talking rubbish. They thought it was funny. ‘It’s good to come a full circle, but we’re not remaking it. We’re not trying to do the Seventies The Sweeney.’ Ray's first appearance on The Sweeney was 35 years ago. 'I was a good-looking geezer back then and God, I'm ugly now...

I kept talking while John Thaw and Dennis Waterman were trying to do their lines,' he said 3. DON'T CALL IT A REMAKE ‘It’s not a remake,’ says producer Chris Simon. ‘A reboot, maybe. We have Regan, Carter and one catchphrase, but apart from that all we’ve retained from the original is the attitude.’ If you’re wondering, the one catchphrase is: ‘Get your trousers on, you’re nicked.’ Winstone says it to a villain in boxer shorts at the end of a violent car chase. ‘I didn’t want too many quotes,’ says Love. ‘It’s not for the guys like me who grew up watching it as kids.’ 4. DON'T GO RETRO Kipper ties, Cortinas and casual sexism: the temptation was to set The Sweeney in the late Seventies and have fun with those anachronisms. But that’s already been done in the TV series Life On Mars. There was no choice but to go in the opposite direction and set the new Sweeney in modern London. ‘I wanted it to be sharp and contemporary,’ says Love. ‘The landscape of modern London feels more cinematic.

'Doing it as a Seventies movie would restrict you to filming in the tiny bits of London that still look like they did then, and there aren’t many.’ ‘I was born in 1957 and grew up in Plaistow,’ says Winstone. ‘There were bombed-out houses and when you watch the original Sweeney, you can still see them round Hammersmith and Shepherd’s Bush where they filmed it. 'Looking back, it makes me wonder why we helped Germany rebuild its cities before we rebuilt our own. London’s changed completely since then. Look at it at night and it’s beautiful. It feels like it’s finally been lit right.’ The Sweeney in the new film work out of a glass-and-steel office with superb views across the City. The opening scene is a helicopter shot of the Docklands at night. It’s a far cry from smoky pubs and brown Granadas. 5. FIND A RISING STAR 'We just took the name and the basic elements of The Sweeney and reinvented it,' said Ben In the first episode of the original, Regan needed a partner who could throw a punch and knew his way around the criminal underworld.

He picked DS George Carter – played by former boxer Dennis Waterman. The modern Carter had to be as tough. ‘We saw some very successful actors,’ says Ray Winstone, ‘but as soon as I saw Ben I thought: number one, he looks like he could kick down a door, and number two, he can act.’ Ben Drew is more famous as Plan B, the Brit Award-winning hip-hop artist from east London. He’d already released two hit albums and had appeared in the films Adulthood and Harry Brown (the latter opposite Michael Caine). He was also working on his directorial debut, the sink-estate drama Ill Manors. That film, and the accompanying album, which went to number one last month, have since massively boosted Drew’s profile. Good news for The Sweeney. ‘I nearly pulled out though,’ says Drew. ‘To be honest, I didn’t want to be a Batman and Robin sidekick.’ ‘Ben watched a few episodes of the TV show and felt like Carter was just Regan’s driver,’ says Love. ‘Regan had the best lines and best scenes.

Ben’s career is so stellar at the moment that he didn’t need to do it if he was just going to be saying “Yes, guv.”’ Drew was talked round. ‘Ray persuaded me that if he was a real cop he’d want someone my age as a partner,’ he says, ‘someone who spoke the language the kids speak. 'There’s a lot less Cockney on the streets of London now. I guess it’s a Jamaican influence. 'Old boys wouldn’t understand a word that comes out of a kid’s mouth. That’s when I realised we had our own thing and we weren’t trying to be Thaw and Waterman. 'We just took the name and the basic elements of The Sweeney and reinvented it – like they did with Casino Royale or Batman Begins.’ 'It's not a remake. A reboot, maybe. We have Regan, Carter and one catchphrase, but apart from that all we've retained from the original is the attitude,' said producer Chris Simon 6. DO YOUR RESEARCH The cast were in place. But who would the villains be? It was always East End crime gangs in the Seventies version. Is that realistic these days? Nick Love asked members of the real Flying Squad.

‘They told me crime has changed,’ says Love. ‘Armed robberies still go on; more than we know about, since police protection of information means some stuff doesn’t get reported. From what they said, east Europeans seemed the most realistic choice of baddies.’ ‘There’s drugs, prostitution, everything going on in London,’ says Winstone. ‘It could be Turkish or Albanian gangs. But it can be sensitive diplomatically – so how much do we actually hear about?’ The Flying Squad also advised the cast on how to stop an armed robbery. Winstone and Drew watched clips of CCTV footage. ‘They go in incredibly hard and aggressively,’ says Love. ‘It’s all about “dominate and neutralise”. 'There’s a tiny window between confirming that a robber “has the happy bag” (so you can arrest him) and him getting away. 'So if someone is escaping by car, they’re supposed to block the car in, but often they just ram it. So when we have Regan and Carter T-bone him, smash his window and grab him, that’s accurate.’ 7. FILM A GUN FIGHT IN TRAFALGAR SQUARE This is impossible.

Go to number 8. The Sweeney in the new film work out of a glass-and-steel office with superb views across the City 8. FIND A SILENT BULLET ‘I always wanted this film to have a gunfight in Trafalgar Square,’ says Love. ‘The authorities said flat-out no, because of the noise. Imagine the 999 calls you’d get from the sound of gunfire. But, by chance, we heard about a blank bullet that fires without sound.’ ‘Most blank rounds used in movies create the flash for the camera and the bang for the sound recordist,’ says the armourer on the film, Rob Partridge. ‘But I heard from the MoD that they’ve recently started using UTM Silent Blanks, a new type of cartridge which cycles the weapon as real, explosive bullets do, but makes very little noise. 'The only sound is that of the mechanical actions of the weapon: click, click, click. They’re used in training by special units whose name we “dare” not mention.’ ‘With the new silent-firing ammo we could have real guns with kickback and shell cases falling exactly as in real life,’ says Love. ‘It looks incredibly realistic.

The only thing we had to add in afterwards was the sound of gunfire.’ 9. NOW FILM A GUNFIGHT IN TRAFALGAR SQUARE There were still an awful lot of people to persuade before the gunfight could be filmed, including Westminster City Council, the Squares Management Team of the GLA, Transport For London and the Metropolitan Police. Then there was the Mayor’s office. ‘It turns out that Boris Johnson is a massive Sweeney fan,’ says Love. ‘He made it happen. It’s amazing how many doors open to you when you say it’s The Sweeney. ‘We’d been given four hours on a Sunday morning and I needed to get it done before too large a crowd developed. 'The law says that you can ask people to stay out of shot but not force them.’ ‘It was like a military operation,’ says Simon. ‘Nick was down there for a year, planning it out. It was the most adrenaline-packed morning of my life.’ ‘As soon as I heard there was a Trafalgar Square gunfight in The Sweeney, I had to be in it,’ Drew says.

‘Not a lot of British films have the freedom to do that.’ Was it the first time he’d held a gun? ‘No, but it’s the first time I’ve shot one. The main thing is, you can’t blink when it goes off.’ Love interest Hayley Atwell 10. GET TOP GEAR TO FILM YOUR CAR CHASE Love wanted the gunfight to occur about three-quarters of the way through the film. For the very end, he wanted a car chase, and an incredible one – cars having been so central to the spirit of the original Sweeney. ‘The trouble was, Nick’s never done a car chase before,’ says Drew. ‘So who was he going to ask? Who’s got the best experience? Top Gear. That was a touch of genius, I thought. Very resourceful. No one had asked them before, so they did it for us.’ Anyone watching the May 7 episode of Top Gear will have seen Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond making a pig’s ear of filming The Sweeney’s car chase, and Nick Love’s furious reaction. Of course it was a joke.

At the same time, Top Gear’s actual cameramen and directors – the ones who film the tyre-smoking hot laps – were working on the real scene. In order to film it, Love had asked car companies if they could give him something they wouldn’t mind being smashed up. ‘Jaguar let us have an XFR, which does 0-60mph in less than five seconds,’ he says. ‘It’s the modern equivalent of the classic getaway, the Mark II Jag, so I gave it to the villain. I wanted the Sweeney to drive something fast but inconspicuous. 'Ford said I could use their new Focus ST, which does 154mph.’ As Drew says, Top Gear were probably the only people in the country who could get every ounce of that speed down on film and under budget. ‘It took six months of planning and right up to the day we didn’t know if it was going to happen or not,’ says Simon. ‘We’re not really meant to admit that Top Gear shot it for us. Licence-fee money isn’t supposed to subsidise our budget. 'In fact, it cost us so much money to have them on set that we were slightly down on the deal.

But it was worth it.’ And so, after filming on a shoestring, lucking into the perfect cast, riddling Trafalgar Square with bullets and smashing Fords into Jags with the aid of Top Gear, will the new Sweeney be a success? ‘We’ve sold it around the world,’ says Simon. ‘We’re hoping for a series. The Americans picked it up in Cannes. They loved it. They were calling everyone slags and saying, “You’re nicked.”’ Sounds like a result, guv. ‘The Sweeney’ opens on September 12 By Gresham Blake

Question: Who played DI Jack Regan in the TV series 'The Sweeny'?
Answer: John Thaw